17 Best Apps to Use a Raspberry Pi as a Desktop PC

Finding apps that work well with Raspberry Pi is important if you plan on using it as a replacement for your desktop computer. But when there are so many out there, it’s hard to tell which ones are the best. Today you’re in luck because I’ve done all of the hard work for you.

Category	Best application
Email client	Thunderbird
Graphics	MyPaint
Development	Visual Studio Code
Web browser	Brave
Office	LibreOffice
Console	Terminator
Printer management	CUPS
Movies	VLC
Music	QMMP
Instant messaging	Pidgin

This list was created after two days of using a Raspberry Pi as a desktop computer. You might know some of these apps already, but I’ll introduce each with a picture and a short description explaining why you need it on your Raspberry Pi

I have written a complete tutorial on how to install new apps on Raspberry Pi, feel free to read it first, especially if the apps you are interested in aren’t available with traditional methods.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next Raspberry Pi project, I’ve put together a list of 75+ ideas with full descriptions, difficulty ratings, and links to tutorials. Whether you’re a beginner or more advanced, there’s something here for you. Grab the list for free here!

Synaptic

Synaptic is the Debian package manager. It will help you find and install new software on your Raspberry Pi.
It’s equivalent to the default “Add/Remove Software” with more features.

You can see all Raspberry Pi OS packages on one page, browse by categories or search for specific words. And you’ll get all menus on the top bar, a feature we don’t have on the default software.
It allows you to add repositories, customize the tool, or use a script to download packages automatically from a previous installation.

If you always use the apt command to manage packages, you won’t need this tool. However, for desktop usage of the Raspberry Pi, I will be recommending mostly graphical software. You can install Synaptic in the same way you install other programs on Raspberry Pi OS.

Before installing any apps, make sure you’re using a fast SD card with enough space for everything. I don’t know about you, but I hate having to start all over again because I didn’t choose my materials wisely. If you’re not sure if your SD card is good enough, you can check my benchmark of the best SD cards here. I have compared them all, and I give you the best recommendation.

Note: If you want to see all these steps in action, I have a video lesson available for the community members. You can join here and watch it directly if you are interested (with 20+ other lessons for Raspberry Pi and many other benefits).

XFCE4

The old-school default desktop environment was just not for me.
If I have to use the Raspberry Pi as my computer, I’d rather install a better interface.
I have chosen XFCE4, but depending on your needs, other possibilities exist.

I think XFCE4 strikes a good balance between performance and design.
You’ll get the applications menu on the top left (I like that) and a dock with the main shortcuts at the bottom of the screen (you can customize it as you want).

The installation process is a little unusual, so I’ll give you all the steps:

• Install the XFCE4 meta-package using the tasksel tool.
  sudo tasksel
  
  Go down to Xfce and mark it by pressing SPACE. Hit Ok to finish.
  The tool will now download and install the files needed. It’ll take awhile. Wait until it’s done.
  (If it fails or times out, repeat the steps above, and it’ll resume where it left off.)
• Modify display manager configuration:
  sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
  You’ll be switching to lightdm, which will let you change your desktop at login time.
  • Look for the line “greeter-session=pi-greeter-labwc” and change it to:
    greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter
  • Comment out these lines by adding “#” in front of them:
    #autologin-user=...
#autologin-session=LXDE-pi-labwc
    
  • Save & exit (CTRL+X, Y, Enter)
• Reboot
  sudo reboot now
• Change your session to XFCE.
  When your system loads up, a graphical login box will appear.
  Click on the icon at the top right and select Xfce Session from the dropdown.
  
• Login with your username and password. That’s it—you should be in XFCE!
• If you’d like to stay on this desktop environment, you can uninstall the default one to free space on your SD card if needed:
  sudo apt remove lxappearance lxde lxde-* lxinput lxmenu-data lxpanel lxpolkit lxrandr lxsession* lxsession lxshortcut lxtask lxterminal sudo apt-get install pistore
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
sudo reboot

If you prefer another desktop environment, have in mind that the Raspberry Pi is not a powerful computer. You may have performances issue, so choose what you want, but I prefer a light environment.

Anyway, you can check my tutorial here on how to install any desktop environment on Raspberry Pi if you want to try other ones.

Guake Terminal

Guake is a terminal that works like any terminal.
But you can bring it up with a keyboard shortcut, and hit hide with the same key.
So if you hit F12, the drop-down terminal comes to the foreground, if you hit F12 again the terminal disappears (but keeps running).

It’s okay to let something run behind, like an error log display of real-time information.
I often use this to display htop in Guake (process list and system load).
Every time I have slow performance, I just hit F12, and htop appears (Don’t know what htop is? Check my command cheat sheet here).

This tool is particularly useful on a Raspberry Pi when you don’t always have a good mouse.
Usually, I have a good Bluetooth keyboard (see my recommended products page), but it’s a tactile mouse on it, which is not the best to browse the menu and find the terminal.
So Guake helps me a lot with this.

To use it, you have to start it first from the Applications menu > Accessories > Guake terminal. Guake will run in the background until you call it with F12. You can also click on the system tray icon to open it.

Terminator

Terminator is a terminal manager that lets you add and close multiple terminals in a grid.
Guake is good for one command running behind, but Terminator is useful during active work.

For example, if you install WordPress on your Raspberry Pi (or wherever), you can have a window displaying logs, one in the Apache folder for the configuration and another in the www folder for WordPress configuration.

Rather than switch between windows, Terminator allows you to display them all simultaneously.
You can split windows, close them or add a new one. You can also resize any windows.
Simultaneous typing is also possible, as well as grid export.

It’s a great tool on Linux. I often use it for complicated things.
If you master the commands that any Raspberry Pi users should know (check my shortlist here), you’ll love this tool.

Brave

Brave is a good web browser that’s fully compatible with your Raspberry Pi.
I’ll introduce this browser because you probably already know about Chromium and Firefox.

Brave is an open-source browser developed by Brave Software Inc and is independently. If you’re familiar with Chromium, you’ll probably know how to use Brave.

Okay, but why install Brave over Chromium or Firefox? One good reason is that Brave blocks ads and trackers by default, so there’s less to load and more privacy protection. To install Brave on your Raspberry Pi, you can follow our step by step guide.

On my first test, Brave seemed quicker than Chromium or Firefox, so I used it for a few hours.
But in the end, I re-compared everything, and the difference wasn’t so obvious.

Anyway, I think you can use the browser you want. They all have similar features.
And most of the time, I think you will keep the one that you usually use.

If I had used the Raspberry Pi as my computer longer, I would have chosen the browser that I have all my preferences saved in the cloud (bookmarks, extensions, passwords, …).

If you really want the “best” web browser for you, read this article where I compare all of them. I tested them all and share with you my recommendation. There is no perfect solution for anyone, it depends on what you need.

Thunderbird

I’m not a big fan of desktop email clients.
I usually prefer webmail like Gmail or Outlook.com.
But if you want to use your Raspberry Pi as your desktop PC, you may need one.

Thunderbird is one of the best email clients on Linux and is available on Raspberry Pi OS.

You can use it with any email provider (POP/IMAP) and also manage other feeds on it like RSS or newsgroups. By default, there is an integrated calendar, and you can add many extensions that are downloadable on the official website.

Don’t forget that if your Pi runs from an SD card, and you have an account with 30GB of emails, you’ll quickly run out of space. Try to use IMAP if possible and sync only the most essential folders on your Raspberry Pi.

By the way, a Raspberry Pi can also host your email server, check my tutorial here if you are interested in this project.

Pidgin

Pidgin is a chat client for the main chat services on the web (Facebook, Jabber, Skype etc.).
It’s a tool similar to Empathy, Trillian, or Franz Messenger.
You add every account you want on these services and chat with everyone from the same software.

I like Pidgin because it’s a light app and well-integrated with Raspberry Pi OS. Its appearance and notifications work fine, whatever your desktop environment.

You can install Pidgin straight from the official repository. If you need to connect to services not listed in the default selection—like Slack or WhatsApp—all you need to do is add plugins here to enable functionality.

For video conferencing, you can also install Zoom on Raspberry Pi. I explain how in this post.

FileZilla

FileZilla is a well-known FTP client, but that’s not all

As with any file transfer client, you’ll have a source repository on the left (you generally), and the destination server on the right (another computer or server in your network, or on the Internet).
You can manage connections in the site manager.
And then you can transfer files with a drag and drop them into the other side.

On the site manager, you can choose between FTP, SFTP and Storj protocols.
SFTP is particularly useful in Raspberry Pi or Linux environments.
You can connect to another Raspberry Pi, or from your computer to the Raspberry Pi with FileZilla.
That’s how I got all the screenshots for this article :).

In the advanced settings, you can manage cool things like default actions on transfer, concurrent transfers, or speed limits.

Alternatives: 5 Best Free FTP Clients For Ubuntu In 2023 (Tested & ranked)

Deluge

Deluge is a tool to download torrents on your Raspberry Pi.
Torrent is a protocol to download files. It’s not illegal if you download files legally.
For example, Raspberry Pi OS images are available for torrent download, and often it’s faster than HTTP download.

I like Deluge because it’s a simple app at first look, but with many hidden options.
So for beginners, just grab your .torrent file and open it in Deluge. The download will start. Done.
For others, you’ll find a ton of features in the app menu, like a web interface or a console manager.

Deluge and Raspberry are an exciting couple.
If you have many files to download (or big files), you can manage this with your Raspberry Pi, stop your usual computer, go to sleep and get all files downloaded in the morning.
This way you’ll save energy. And the web interface will be great for that.

Alternatives: Turn Your Raspberry Pi Into a Torrent Box (The 3 Best Apps)

VLC

I think that everyone knows VLC, but I have to put it on this list.
VLC is an open-source media player, available on most platforms, including Raspberry Pi.

Take a media file (.mkv, .avi, .mp3/4, …) and open it with VLC.
Most of the time it’ll work, no codecs issues as it can read almost anything.

Then, it’s a classic media player, with all needed options, I don’t have much to add.

If you are using your Raspberry Pi mostly as a media center, a better solution like Plex or Jellyfin might be considered. They can access YouTube, Netflix, and other streaming services too.

QMMP

I don’t really like the default music players in any Linux distribution. I find that apps like Audacious, Amarok, or Rhythmbox have an old-school look and take a lot of space on the screen.

QMMP does just what we need: play music, with a playlist manager and equalizer.
It has a similar look to Winamp for those who know. You can close any section if you don’t need it.

It’s a lightweight app for the Raspberry Pi, which works fine and is available on the default repository. What’s more to say?

If the main usage of your Raspberry Pi is a music player, I would recommend taking a look at these other options I have tested here.

MyPaint

Confession: I don’t like GIMP at all.
Generally, I use Photoshop (with Windows or Wine) or Krita (on my Ubuntu computer). I use these tools to make quick modifications to pictures like adding text, resizing, or cropping.

But with GIMP, every time I tried, I wasted a lot of time with its dumb interface :).

So on Linux, I usually install Krita, which is an excellent tool for these kinds of small edits.
But Krita isn’t available on Raspberry Pi OS, so I have to find another tool.

I found MyPaint, which seems to do what I want.
In a small interface, you’ll get all the needed stuff in the main toolbar.

Anyway, on hardware like the Raspberry Pi, there is no way to install Photoshop or Wine, so you will have to deal with basic software.

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is almost the only decent alternative to Microsoft Office on Linux.
I’m not familiar with Office 365. If you have an account, maybe you can use the online version on your Raspberry Pi. But if you are looking for installed software, LibreOffice will do the job.

LibreOffice is an entire suite of tools, like the Microsoft one:

• Microsoft Word => LibreOffice Writer
• Microsoft Excel => LibreOffice Calc
• Microsoft PowerPoint => LibreOffice Impress

The interface changes a bit, but globally you should quickly find the main tools on LibreOffice.

By default, new files are saved into an OpenDocument format, with a .odt or .ods extension.
But you can choose to save it as .doc or .xls to keep compatibility with another computer if needed (you can also install LibreOffice on any other computer if you want).

Obsidian

Obsidian is not just a note-taking app or a way to create your own Wiki (although it’s great at these tasks). It also has powerful plugins to do everything else you can imagine.

Obviously, it’s only useful if you want to avoid using online tools like OneNote, Evernote, or other alternatives. I tend to prefer them as it’s all synced with my other computers, phone, and tablet. But it’s your choice, I understand if you prefer keeping your data away from these giant companies :).

The easiest way to get Obsidian is via Pi-Apps. It’s an app store where you can download software not found in the official repo, like Minecraft Java. Anyway, here’s how to install Obsidian:

• Install Pi-Apps.
  wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash
• In Pi-Apps, go to Office > Obsidian, and then click Install.

Anyway, Obsidian does an impressive job at this, you can create unlimited pages and subpages, all the formatting is available as with other similar tools. The only thing I haven’t found is how to resize images; maybe it’s possible, but if not, you may have to use a tool like “MyPaint” first.

HomeBank

And the last Microsoft Office tool alternative we don’t see is Money.
HomeBank is a light tool to manage your bank accounts.
I didn’t use it a ton over two days, but it seemed to work fine.

This tool analyzes your personal finance and budget, with a nice interface, including charts.
Most of the time, it’s possible to export data from your bank and upload it into HomeBank.
Then you can categorize each transaction, add notes, make your bank reconciliation, etc.

Your data is easy to export, so it won’t be lost. You can re-import it into any tool of this kind (like GnuCash for example). HomeBank is also available on Windows, so even if you change your operating system you can keep this app.

CUPS

Printing stuff on Linux has always been complicated, but this tool can help you 🙂

CUPS is a web interface to manage printers.
You can add a printer on the network or a USB plug.
A list of drivers is already built-in and you can add more if needed.

This app will allow you to install a new printer with a few steps on a web interface rather than using a non-intuitive interface or using obscure commands.

You’ll even be able to share your printers on your network, even if it’s an old dumb printer without a network port.

Once cups is installed, go to http://localhost:631 to use the interface.
The default login is pi and the password is the same as your current system password.
All the configuration is found in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf if you need to change something.

If you want to learn more about CUPS, I have a detailed tutorial available here.

Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Yes, it’s from Microsoft, but it’s still a good tool :).

I often code for work or projects at home, and recently I switched from Sublime Text to VS Code.
It’s free, with most of the same features as Sublime Text and the ability to add plugins to do everything (direct Git or SVN management, PHP autocomplete, etc.).

The Raspberry Pi great for programming, and if you only need basic features, Geany is already installed by default and will do the job. I used it at work for over a year without problems, so it must be enough for home projects :).

So, I needed to install Visual Studio Code on my Raspberry Pi during my two-day test to use it as my primary desktop PC.

Visual Studio Code is now available directly in the “Recommended Software” tool. You can install it easily now, no need to install it from sources or a random GitHub project. After installation, you’ll find the shortcut in the main menu, under the “Programming” section.

Visual Studio Code is not the only option. You can find my top text editors in this article. And I also have dedicated blog posts for PyCharm and Geany if you want to learn a few tips about them.

Need More?

Maybe these apps were too obvious to you, here is a video where I introduced 21 other apps that most people don’t know!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdL48_fb0aA

Final Thoughts

My two-day test using my Raspberry Pi as my primary computer ended with mixed opinions.

On one hand, I confirmed that it’s possible to use a Raspberry Pi as a desktop PC. On the other hand, everything was slow, and overall the Raspberry Pi was only useful for a single task (even multi-tab browsing was a pain).

So yes, you can give a Raspberry Pi to a kid or someone who doesn’t need a computer often. Or if grandparents are checking their emails once or twice a week, they don’t need a $500 computer to do this, a Raspberry Pi can be useful and save money. Also, they’re not accustomed to more powerful computers, so “slowness” will not be a problem for them.

But for me, I’m pleased to go back to my latest generation pc!
I hope this post will help you to get an honest review of the Raspberry Pi and some ideas for apps to use on it.

By the way, Raspberry Pi Imager is also a great app you can install on your Raspberry Pi, especially if you don’t have a computer (click the link to read my tutorial about it).

• Can a Raspberry Pi 4 really Replace your Desktop PC? (I Tried)
• How to Easily Create Desktop Shortcuts on Raspberry Pi OS?
• How to Change the Desktop Appearance on Raspberry Pi?

Feel free to comment if you know other good apps you want to share with us.

Whenever you’re ready, here are other ways I can help you:

Test Your Raspberry Pi Level (Free): Not sure why everything takes so long on your Raspberry Pi? Take this free 3-minute assessment and see what’s causing the problems.

The RaspberryTips Community: Need help or want to discuss your Raspberry Pi projects with others who actually get it? Join the RaspberryTips Community and get access to private forums, exclusive lessons, and direct help (try it for just $1).

Master your Raspberry Pi in 30 days: If you are looking for the best tips to become an expert on Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. Learn useful Linux skills and practice multiple projects with step-by-step guides.

Master Python on Raspberry Pi: Create, understand, and improve any Python script for your Raspberry Pi. Learn the essentials step-by-step without losing time understanding useless concepts.

You can also find all my recommendations for tools and hardware on this page.